Workbench wood thickness

K

kaizo

Joined
Oct 17, 2014
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Hi I've finally decided to replace my glass table top of my desk with a wood one to use as a work bench so that I can do some hammering to make my knife sheath but would someone kindly recommend me the type of wood and thickness I should be looking for please?

Thanks for your help :)
 
I built my bench with 1.5" ply. It is my reloading/work bench. It is more than rigid enough for my reloading press. Id say if you frame the bench up good 1.5 should be fine for you. I have two 3/4" pieces glued together. Pretty strong. Pine ply is soft so what I have is a 1/4" piece of Masonite screwed on top of it so it can be replaced if it ever gets damaged.
 
I built my work bench out of a scrap of laminated beam, 8" x 18" x 36". Covered it with Masonite like droptrd.

Another thing to consider is to get a piece of stone to tool leather on.

Ric
 
I have a maple work bench with steel legs from Grizzly imports. Catalog page 294. And for tooling leather look at their granite surface plates. They also sell leg sets for them both.
 
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Best thing to do is build your own custom work bench, I was lucky enough to get a strong custom work bench for free that was welded together with a steel frame, but soon I'm gonna build my other work bench that will go inside my tool shed.
 
Mine is 2 side by side 4"x12"x5' covered with 3/4" plywood. My Dad built it in 1953 with a 4x12 timber of an old bridge. To get the timber home we got it in the road and drove the car over it. We lifted one end about 6" off the gravel road and tied it to the rear bumper. Then we lifted the other end and tied it to the front bumper. We drove home about 3 mph to avoid having it ripped off when we hit the multitude of holes in the gravel road. It was an adventure for an 8 year old boy.
 
If I wanted a cheap but stout top I would glue 2 layers of 3/4" plywood together.

For a more crude top I would use 4 or 5 pieces of 2x6 laid side by side.

If I could afford it I would buy one of the laminated Maple tops that you can buy for workbenches.

I have also seen reasonably priced tops at discount stores made out of particle board and laminate. I don't think the particle board is strong compared to a couple of layers of plywood but if you were adding it to a strong base it might be OK. The stuff is hard and smooth.
 
If you can find it 6/4 Trailer Decking is great. I was fortunate enough to get some that was discarded from my old job that was used as shelving. I did a quick google search and found trailer decking com.
 
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